Valve Software boss Gabe Newell has said kind things before about mega-publisher EA's upstart rival to Valve's popular PC gaming service Steam. That may have seemed charitable, given that EA's new Origin service competes with Steam and even by EA's own standards may not be as good as Steam for years.

Short version: he says EA's team of smart people on Origin has a lot of catching up to do. Newell does say he still would love to have EA games on Steam again. The big ones are Origin-exclusive these days. But it's the moments when Newell isn't speaking or is struggling to say something nice that say so much more.